


To be young again

by PUNsexual



Category: Sonic Boom (Cartoon)
Genre: Bullying, Gen, Past Abuse, eggdad, kid sonic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-08-23
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-01 07:25:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15769368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PUNsexual/pseuds/PUNsexual
Summary: Eggman has a midlife crisis, and decides to build a machine to make himself young again! However a certain speedy hedgehog had to go a ruin his plans once again…Now with his machine destroyed, eggman is forced to care for a now much younger sonic who appears to not remember him or his pesky friends.Perhaps he can use this to his advantage?





	1. Intruder

It was going so well.

 

Everything was working in his favor this week, as the brilliant dr.eggman worked on his latest creation!

 

Each member of team sonic were on their own personal vacation (after making eggman agree to not attack the village for the next month.), and the prototypes of the machine were all successful. Excluding the first one that blew up because that empty headed klutz cubot spilt coffee on it

 

Obtaining all the necessary parts for his machine were a piece of cake; even the chaos drive he required to power his creation was surprisingly easy to obtain, despite them being strictly for military use only. Gotta love that black market and all its wonderful, and horrifying, illegal wears.

 

It all seemed to easy… and then right on time, you-know-who decided to arrive. Apparently the pesky hedgehog finished his vacation early, which shouldn't be much of a surprise. After all he loves to do things fast, whether it be volleyball or vacations.

 

Eggman slammed his fists onto his desktop, accidentally causing a turret to fire towards sonic. Obviously the speedy devil was able to dodge the laser easily, and continued to smash eggman's expensive robots and turrets. He stood quickly, causing his chair to be pushed backwards. He glared aggressively at the large screen before him that displayed the live footage of sonic breaking into his base, and drawing closer to his new creation. He growled, and shoved the chair to the side as he made his way to a nearby door; his two lackeys orbot and cubot simply watched him leave, unsure of what to do. They both yelped in fear as eggman swiftly turned towards them and aggressively pointed at the two fearfilled robots.

 

“YOU TWO,” He began. “Do whatever you can to stall that rodent while i get to the Y.A.M!”

 

“I didn’t know we grew those!” Cubot exclaimed.

 

“No you’re thinking of a vegetable. Eggman is referring to his Young Again Machi-”

 

“ENOUGH YOU BOLT BRAINS! JUST DO AS I TOLD YOU!” Eggman hollored, silencing the cowering robots.

 

With that said, or rather yelled, eggman rushed out of the room to his machine. The echoed sounds of explosions managed to make their way to eggman, growing louder as the seconds passed.

 

Panting from the exertion of the speedy running (at least for him), he approached a wall sized vault door, which appeared to have no type of handle to open it with. On the wall to its right was a small keypad, and a iris scanner. He placed a hand on the wall nearby the devices, taking a moment to regain his breath. As his breath steadied, he entered an overly complicated code, and then quickly stood in front of the scanner, briefly lifting his glasses so the device could do as intended. After a moment, a loud buzzing noise was heard, signaling that the vault door was about to open.

 

This room that he is about to enter, is the perfect sonic proof bunker. And nuclear apocalypse bunker as well. It’s just an all around good bunker. The only downside was that no radio signals could go through the walls. No devices of any kind can get a signal in their, meaning that his wrist device was almost completely useless. If sonic somehow got in, he’d be unable to send a signal to his minions for aid and would most likely be defeated. I mean, statistically speaking there is a chance that he will win, but without the aid of his robots even eggman himself had to admit that his chances of defeating sonic were slim.

 

Maybe he should’ve put a few guard robots in the room beforehand...

 

But, looking on the bright side of this; sonic can’t contact his friends for backup once that massive door is sealed shut. Maybe after this he should use it as a cell for sonic! But of course he’d have to add a few things; A bathroom, a bed, and maybe a few book's for entertainment. And of course he’d have to remove the button inside the room that opens the door from the inside… maybe he can just cover it up with a painting? He really likes that button.

 

Snapping out of those thoughts, eggman couldn't help but flash a large toothy grin as the door crept open. As soon as it was opened wide enough for him to slip on in, he turned to face the door and saw that on the left side of it there was a large red button. He slammed his hand onto it, causing the door to cease its opening for a moment. It felt like time had frozen as he stared at the motionless door. The sounds of robots exploding, and steal being slammed against were now nonexistent. He felt a bead of sweat fall from his forehead and down his face as he bit his lip in anticipation. He actually jumped from surprise as the loud buzzing happened again, and the door began to shut. He let out a long sigh of relief, not realizing he was holding his breath the entire time.

 

He didn’t dare to take his eyes off of the door until it was completely shut, ensuring that he’d be safe and able to use the machine long before sonic could break through it. He made sure to design the door so it took up an entire wall in a narrow hallway. The only way to enter this room was through that door! Not even the walls and ceiling could be spindashed through, as they’re made of the same material as the door. So unless that numbskull echidna suddenly appeared and gained even more abnormal amounts of strength, no one was going to enter this room unless he wanted them too.

 

He finally tore his gaze away from the massive door, and beheld the device he spent an entire week perfecting. The Young Again Machine!... or Y.A.M for short. The machine looked as if a satellite dish took steroids and was placed on a metal box with buttons, levers, and wheels. There were large cables strewn about, connected to various parts of the machine. And smack dab in the middle of its box body, was a glowing red glass cylinder. In it was a crystal shard, filled to the brim with the mysterious essence known as chaos energy. He had spent much of his life studying chaos energy, reading over the discoveries that many a scientist had learned over the course of time. A large portion of modern understandings of chaos energy are thanks to his great-grandfather, and his grandfather gerald. Sadly much undocumented knowledge was lost when he died many years ago.

 

He bolted towards the machine, pressing various buttons, pulling many a lever, and typing a multitude of codes. He squealed in delight (and was thankful no one heard it) when the machine hummed to life, the chaos energy slowly flowing into the various parts of the machine. Empowering it with its archaic energy, and working its way towards full power.

 

Very, _very_ … slowly.

 

…

 

This was going to take a few minutes.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

He casually plucked a small piece of metal from the mess that was his quills. Another low quality eggman robot destroyed, and its metallic corpse strewn across the hallway floor with its fellow brethren.

 

Sonic smirked as he felt the ground beneath his feet tremble before the movement and weight of a familiar eggman robot. Its large shadow loomed over sonic, eclipsing the fluorescent lighting that filled the littered hallway. He casually turned towards his gigantic foe, the mega. He has seen, and destroyed, this robot countless times. He moved into a more relaxed stance, placing a hand on his hip while using the other to stifle a yawn.

 

The mega rose its fist into the air, its metal knuckles grazing the ceiling of the expansive hallway. In the blink of an eye, it slammed its fist onto the ground, hoping to lift its fist and see the crushed remains of its creators mortal enemy in its shadow. But as many know, sonic was simply to fast for the robot. Before it could register that sonic had even moved, the cocky hero delivered a hard spindash to its head, denting it and causing its head to make a sharp turn. The mega quickly recovered and looked to the direction of the blow, only to be meet with another deadly spin dash right through eye and then the head. Sonic’s spikey body sailed with ease through the bots head. His curled up form hit the ground, causing him to bounce high enough for him to then uncurl and stick the landing. He proceeded to then bow at and thank an invisible audience, giving the fans air kisses as he casually ran through the hallway. A deafening explosion was heard far behind him, the mega now slain.

 

As he arrived at the door to eggman's computer room, he saw two very familiar henchbots. They both yelped as they leapt from eggman’s chair, cowering behind it like it was a shield. As sonic approached them, they shook more and more violently. The sound of their panicked wimpers became more audible as he placed a hand on the chair, and pushed it aside. The two bots gave out startled cries, and proceeded to try and hide behind one another, eventually leading to a struggle that caused sonic to sigh.

 

“Calm down guys,” Sonic said in a casual tone. “I’m not gonna attack you.”

 

The two paused in their struggle to glance towards sonic. Despite not having very expressive faces, it was obvious that they were both confused by his remark.

 

“Why not?” Cubot dared to ask, causing orbot to panic and cover his friends mouth with both hands.

 

Sonic grinned as placed his hands on his hips and leaned down to the robots eye level.

 

“Cause you guys got information. You always ratout eggman to us, so how about you do that again.” He straightened himself, crossing his arms as he rose. “You guys can tell me what he’s up to… or, i can add two more bots to the pile of scraps out there in the hallway.” He said, and gestured a thumb to the door that sealed the robot graveyard from the room. The two exchanged a worried look, and then released each other. They looked towards sonic, both now appearing to be nervous. Whether their nervous about sonic destroying them, or eggman if they decide to explain his plans, he doesn't fully know. Probably both.

 

“Very well then.” Orbot agreed. “As long as you don’t tell eggman how you procured this information, we will tell you of his latest plan.”

 

Sonic nodded his head as he listened to the two (mostly orbot) quickly explain the doctors newest plan.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The machine was going strong at three minutes to power up! As eggman sat cross legged in front of the machine, its satellite dish pointed directly where he sit, he rested his head in one of his hands as the other twiddled the end of his moustache.

 

Part of him was tempted to leave the room and release metal sonic. He’d be able to distract sonic long enough for him to complete his plan. But if he left now, the real sonic could burst into the room and destroy the Y.A.M. He simply could not let that happen. He _needed_ to be younger, so he’d be in better shape to fight team sonic. Then again, he wasn’t much healthier back in his twenties, in fact he was about the same. Maybe even a bit more unhealthy. He shook his head and tried to focus on the bigger picture; if he’s younger, then he’ll live longer… at least age wise. For all he knew he could die in an explosion tomorrow.

 

He pressed his face into both his hands and groaned.

 

“How much longer is this going to-”

 

_Ding!_

 

Eggman  quickly leapt up from his sitting position,  his bored and tired expression now energized and excited. He rose to his feet as a small hum began to fill the room. He once again couldn’t help but grin. He actually began to laugh joyously as he realized that his plan was working. He was about to become a young man once again. And with his youthful energy, he was going to finally destroy team sonic once and for all!

 

He would have continued laughing until the device fired at him, but his joyful villainous laughter was cut short as he heard a different laser fire twice, and machines sparking. His face turned to a grimace as he looked towards the door. With horror he realized that the door was slowly opening. In a state of panic, he rushed to the door and tried to push it shut. But it was far to big and heavy, to the point where it began to actually push him back as it opened.

 

It was far to late. Before his mind could process what was happening, a blue blur rushed past him and headed for the Y.A.M.

 

Everything moved in slow motion; eggman turned to see that sonic was in mid air, spinning towards the device like a buzzsaw while tossing aside one of his robots laser arms. He screamed at sonic to stop, but he knew it was in vain. Sonic was going to destroy it, and he’s willing to bet that the chaos drive would either be taken or destroyed by that spikey pest. His chance to become young again was about to be ripped from his hands! Sure, he could rebuild the device, but the chaos drive he obtained was the only one the black market had to offer. If they don’t have another one by now, it will be next to impossible for him to get one. No other form of energy could power a machine of this type.

He spent half of the week studying various power sources in order to find the best one. For a process such as this, only chaos energy and its mystical properties would suffice. He watched in agony as sonic’s blue form connected to the device, and began to saw it it half from top to bottom. The familiar sound of razor sharp quills slashing through metal filled the room as eggman attempted to stop sonic. He was just running towards the Y.A.M, but had no idea what to do to stop the teenager from completely destroying it. He couldn’t anyway, he knew it was to late.

 

Underneath his dark blue glasses, his eyes widened in shock as he realized sonic's quills were nearing the chaos drive. What in the ancients names would happen if sonic sawed into a chaos drive?! He was several feet away from the machine and closing in, so perhaps he could reach for the drive and yank it out before sonic gets to it. It’s a long shot, but he had to try. That stupid hedgehog was probably going to blow them both up if he managed to break it in such a destructive manner.

 

But sonic was just to fast. His spin dash eventually made it to the drive, and sliced through it like butter. Eggman couldn’t even stop his run, or lift his arms in defense, as the machine began to die in an extremely quick, and destructive, way. Sparks of red chaos energy flew everywhere, and scorched the ground in their wake. The sparks soon changed to bolts, destroying the room in, fittingly, a rather chaotic way. He heard a few of the lights shatter as some of the bolts struck them from all angles, and slowly darkened the room. And in the center of it all was a blue hedgehog, who was inches away from connecting to the ground.

 

And then the machine finally exploded.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Eggman groaned as he placed a hand on his head. He slowly opened his eyes and was greeted with darkness. All the lights in the room appeared to have been destroyed, alongside the Y.A.M. The only source of light was coming from the hallway behind him, making for some rather dramatic lighting. He placed a free hand on the ground and slowly raised himself into a sitting position, gingerly rubbing his head in an attempt to ease the pain. He flinched as his hand ran over a small bruise on the back of his head, most likely obtained from getting knocked back via the explosion. His eyes began to focus on the carnage that lay before him. It looked like the Y.A.M was cut in half with a knife, and then it exploded… actually that’s pretty much what happened, except you replace the knife with an obnoxious, pesky, annoying, idiotic mobian teenager!

 

Eggman took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. Grunting, he managed to lift himself to his feet and survey the surroundings, as well as himself. He was surprised to see that he was mostly unharmed. Aside from the bruise on his head, the only damage he took was to his clothes, as there were several tears of varying sizes scattered across is usual attire. As for the room, it was covered in scorch marks from the chaos energy, making it look as if the room was destroyed by lightning. Scattered and destroyed pieces of his creation lay all around the room, some rather deadly pieces even getting  dangerously close to hitting where he once laid. He glared at the center off the room, right where the machine was once whole and undamaged. He expected sonic to be there, looking smug and probably planning on saying a witty joke before leaving the base. But strangely, the pest was nowhere to be seen.

 

He glanced around the room confused, wondering if sonic had already left. Usually he likes to hang around long enough to gloat. And on the rare occasion that sonic badly injures him, he usually drops him off at the hospital, or the base, or just waits till he wakes up to make sure he’s ok. Just like any goody two shoes hero would do. But this time, the hedgehog was nowhere to be seen. Did he really leave, even after seeing eggman injured and unconscious on the ground? No, that doesn't sound like him at all. Was he going to get help? That sounds rather unlikely, unless he was getting orbot and cubot.

 

Speaking of which… as eggman contemplated the multiple possibilities as to why a certain hero was not presently here, two familiar voices were heard approaching the open doorway. Eggman turned and saw his two lackies hovering into the room while pushing in a gurney. They froze for a moment when they saw their creator was up, but quickly snapped out of it and rushed to his side.

 

“Glad to see you are awake sir.” Orbot exclaimed.

 

“YEAH! Glad to see you’re ok after we told soni-” Cubot began, but was quickly interrupted by orbot.

 

“After we told sonic to… uh. To leave the base, or we’ll send more robots after him! Sadly, he overpowered us and ran to the vault.” Orbot lied, receiving two thumbs up from cubot.

 

Eggman glared at the two briefly. “How long have i been unconscious?” He calmly asked.

 

“Only a few minutes sir. As soon as we heard the explosion, cubot and i raced down here to check on you. After seeing you lying on the floor unconscious, we rushed to the medical room to fetch a gurney for you and roll you to your room.” Orbot quickly explained.

 

“BUT NOW YOU’RE AWAKE!” Cubot stated. “Now we don’t have to push you to your room. Thank goodness, cause the last time we did that it took us a really long time! I mean, you’re really heavy.”

 

Orbot looked panicked at his less intelligent friends statement, but eggman appeared to be ignoring the two of them, and approached the ruined remains of the Y.A.M. Orbot and cubot exchanged worried glances, before cautiously following alongside their boss.

 

“Sir,” Orbot began. “Are you alright?”

 

Eggman glanced down at orbot, but quickly returned his attention to the corpse of Y.A.M. He sighed in defeat and turned away from his once glorious and beautiful creation.

 

“Get the remaining robots to help you two with cleaning up this room and the base. I want it spotless for me when i get to work on Y.A.M 2.0.” Eggman ordered as he strode towards the rooms exit.

 

But before his two bots could reply, a strange noise was heard coming from Y.A.M 1.0. It was faint, but he swore it sounded like a mix between a crow cawing and a baby wailing very briefly. I know it's an odd combination of sounds, but that’s the best way he could describe it to himself as he quickly turned to the device, his heart racing as the sudden sound startled him. But after a moment to calm himself, he heard nothing else coming from it. He shrugged it off, assuming it was just the remains of Y.A.M settling.

 

The doctor and his two henchbots proceeded to leave the room, with cubot pushing the gurney out of the ravaged room. The three of them not sparing another glance to the remains of the Y.A.M as they got further and further away from the metallic carnage.

 

But if they did, they would have seen the wreckage move slightly, as the faint cry was heard once more. And the heartbreaking sound of scared, quiet sobs from someone that sounded rather young.

 

Young… and very afraid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you are wondering about that animal screech/cry noise i described, its basically the hedgehog noise they make when scarred. basically their way of screaming.  
> here's a video of what it sounds like if you're curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hW6MTFHi2Lg 
> 
> also yes, i named the Y.A.M that so i could make cubot make that yam joke... and cause it was the first acronym i though of and it sounded ok to me. XD
> 
> and also, i KNOW i should be working on 'survive', but this idea came to me and i HAD to write it!
> 
> Edit: fixed a few things.


	2. Guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What happened to sonic?

It was now several hours after the rather humiliating defeat that eggman suffered. He sat tiredly in front of his large computer, looking at the new design he finished for the Y.A.M. He mainly focused on adding better defence for the device, and more specifically the compartment for the chaos drive. Seriously, what was he thinking with that last design? The drive was completely unprotected and could’ve been easily snatched away. But instead of that, it was blow up by the constant annoyance that is sonic the hedgehog. He sighed as he closed the blueprints and went back to his opened internet browser to wrap up ordering the new supplies he needed for the Y.A.M 2.0.

 

_ ‘Evil amazon. What kind of moron names their illegal dealings website that?’  _ Eggman contemplated as he moved the mouse to click on another  _ order now _ button. There goes another absurd amount of money spent on an evil invention. He yawned loudly as he closed the browser, sliding down his chair slightly as his arms slouched down to his sides. After a moment of relaxation he attempted to raise himself up from his comfortable chair to make his way to bed, but his body simply refused to move at all.

 

_ ‘Maybe i should make a robot to carry me to bed every night.’ _ He pondered briefly.  _ ‘Bah. if i did that i’d be even more lazy than i am now. And i do not want to have to deal with orbot and cubot harassing me to get off my butt and do something again, or that pesky roden and his friends.’ _  He thought, and glared at nothing as the memory of the rather annoying event flashed in his mind. 

 

With a grunt, he finally stood up from his seat, taking a moment to pop his sore back after sitting down for so long. He turned from the large monitor, yawning and scratching his face as he sluggishly forced himself to walk to his bedroom. As he stepped into the hallway, he saw a small fraction of his remaining robots clearing out the remains of their fallen comrades. The mega was still slouched over, standing in defeat in the hallway and currently missing about half of its body. He lightly growled in anger as he walked past the carnage, frustrated at his minions incompetence with stopping sonic earlier. Maybe he should design some new robots to replace his current creations after he finishes the new Y.A.M. As he rounded another corner, he quickly thought about also adjusting the layout of his base so his bedroom would be faster to get to. 

 

After a tad bit more walking, he finally stood before his chambers, ready to get some well deserved sleep. The motion detector he has placed over the door (like many of the doors to his base.) activated and slid the door open for him. He only set one foot into his room before suddenly stopping. He stood still, as he attempted to look out for the corner of his eye again without turning his body. Something was down the hall, hiding behind a corner. Its shadow was partially visible on the wall opposite of the corner revealing that, whatever it was, it was rather small and looking in his direction. Its shadow didn’t look anything like any of his robots. Was it an intruder, or were his tired eyes messing with him. He was tempted to walk over and see what it was, but it was as if it the creature the shadow belonged to sensed this and it bolted. He was sure his remaining security could handle the short intruder, if it even was an intruder, and proceeded to finish entering his room. 

 

His room was rather sparse, designed more for function not fashion. Despite that, he still made sure that the small amount of furniture and decor aesthetically matched his bases design. He walked past the king sized bed, making his way to the small bathroom attached to the room. He did his usual nightly routine of brushing his teeth and moustache, and changing into his once red but now pink pajamas before eagerly rushing to his bed for sleep. As he got himself comfortable under the covers, his mind drifted back to whatever that shadow belonged to. He was certain it wasn't one of his robots, even though some of them might be close to the size of it. He thought about how the shadow was shaped, and what its height appeared to be. He estimated it was about two feet tall, or slightly more. It was thin, and appeared to have three or so spikes on the back of its head… wait.

 

Eggman practically leapt from his bed as he came to this realization. It was that stupid hedgehog once again! He reached over to his bedside table and grabbed his arm device, pressing the large blue button on it.

 

“ORBOT, CUBOT!’ He shouted into the device.

 

“Yes sir, what seems to-”

 

“Activate the base security! That rodent is here again!” He interrupted.

 

“Yes sir!” Orbot quickly replied.

 

As he quickly left his bed, he strapped the arm device onto its usual spot as he bolted out of his room. Not bothering with changing into his usual uniform. 

 

As he ran to the corner he saw his enemies shadow at, he slid across the floor briefly, as his pajamas foot coverings didn’t get much friction on the smoothed out floors of his base. He quickly regained his footing and continued down the hallway, painting from the exertion of the speedy running. He soon came to an intersection, with three other ways to go. He took a moment to regulate his breathing while several of his remaining robots managed to find their way to him. 

He ordered them to split up and take three directions while he takes the fourth. Some went down the path he just came from, some decided to backtrack, and the last few decided to go down the hallway on eggman's right. Seeing as it was the only option remaining, he decided to go left, crossing his fingers in hopes that sonic was there and cornered by some of his other robots. The device on his arm lightly beeped, signaling that one of his minions wished to communicate with him. He pressed the device, hoping that orbot and cubot had managed to locate sonic.

 

“Doctor, it appears that sonic is not to far from your current location.” Orbot explained. Eggman grinned, as lady luck decided to be kind to him for once. “But there’s something strange about him sir… it’s quite possible that it's actually not sonic.”

 

Eggman nearly tripped over his own foot when orbot said that. Did one of the villagers break into his base? And for what purpose? Well he’ll soon find out, as he intends to capture this intruder and make them pay for making him have to get out of bed just after he got comfortable.

 

“Just take the next left, and then enter the storage room on your right. The intruder just ran and hid in there after barley avoiding the wall lasers.” Orbot informed him.

 

Eggman merely nodded, knowing fully that orbot probably wasn’t able to see that. With this information in mind, he decided to slow down his pace and catch his breath. He didn’t want to be winded in case this intruder wanted to start a fight.

 

He soon rounder yet another corner, and closed in on his destination. His heart pounded in his ears as he felt his muscles tense up. He attempted to make himself look as intimidating as possible, despite his current attire, as he strode in front of the storage room door. The door quickly opened with a hiss, and the lights instantly flickered on, illuminating the vast amount of cleaning products and cleaning equipment. He poked his head into the room, looking around the absurdly small space and wondering why anyone would choose to hide in here of all places as they could easily be found. As his eyes continued to wander around the confined room, he spotted something poking out from behind the mop trolley ever so slightly. He smirked as he stepped into the doorframe, using his body as a sort of barricade to prevent the intruder from bolting.

 

“Alright, whoever you are” He began. “Step out from behind the mop trolley and surrender to me now, or face the consequences.” He said in his most intimidating voice as possible. Added to his current sleep deprived tone, he was sure that it sounded rather serious and really cool. His smirk widened as he saw the form tremble slightly at his statement. 

 

But as he saw the faint outline of the form tremble before his threatening demand, he heard a strange sound. It was rather faint, but if he listened close enough he could hear it. It sounded like a cat hissing, but multiple times in quick succession. This rather confused eggman, as he’s never heard any of the villagers make noises like that before. It was rather animalistic. This piqued his curiosity, and he cautiously stepped out of the doorframe and approached the beings hiding spot. His little intruder proceeded to make the hissing noise at him louder, as if they were attempting to scare him away. Well they were failing miserably at that, as it only made him curious. And not that he’d ever admit it, but it also sounded kinda adorable.

 

As he slowly rounded the trolley, he froze in shock as he was now face to face with his intruder. It couldn’t possibly be him. Did he fall asleep and was currently dreaming this? He was to dumbstruck to even move as his eyes saw the intruder, but his mind refused to believe it was him.

 

It was sonic.

 

A  _ younger _ sonic.

 

He looked so much like himself, but at the same time he also didn’t. The now currently sky blue hedgehog looked into eggman glasses in pure fear with his solid black eyes, his whole small (and faintly round) body trembling before the now intimidatingly large human with tears clinging to the corners of his eyes. He clung tightly to his pulled up knees as he attempted to give eggman an intimidating glare, followed by several angry hisses. Most of his clothes were now gone, with only a tattered and now much to large bandana around his not very visible neck, and torn bits of his clothes sports tape clumsily tangled on his hands and feet. All of this honestly made him look rather pathetic. After all sonic usually looked confident and at times was rather egotistical, but now he was a cowering child with his only outfit in ruins and now much to large for him. Eggman was rather furious only moments ago, but now as he looked at the scared child he could only feel pity. Despite fully knowing who he was feeling pity towards. He pondered on what to do, as he really had no idea on how to deal with a scared child. His upbringing didn’t quite help with that. But after a moment his brilliant mind came up with a solution; he stepped back a ways from the scared child, and sat on the ground. He calmed his angered expression and attempted his best calm and friendly face, which he hoped would show that he was no longer mad at this younger sonic.

 

He was still shaking rather violently, but as sonic watched the pajama clad doctor slowly step away and sit on the ground far from his current hiding place, his shakes began to ease up. His tears were now gone, and he cautiously released his legs from his grasp, the tension slowly leaving his body as he finally begun to relax. Eggman breathed a sigh of relief, as he honestly had no idea what to do if that failed to calm sonic at all. He was silent for a moment as he pondered on what to say. He had a plethora of questions to ask sonic, the main one being the reason behind his running around his base at such a late hour. You’d think the doctor would ask what happened to sonic, but with his amazingly high intelligence it didn’t take him very long to come to an answer himself. It was clearly the Y.A.M’s doing. Sonic was caught in the explosion, and somehow it didn’t kill him, but instead it did its job. Albeit he was still covered in bruises and cuts from said explosion.

 

Eggman cleared his throat and began to speak. “So, what are you doing running around my home at such a late hour?”

 

Sonic didn’t say anything at first, but he slowly lifted his hands up and started to move them, making various gestures and symbols. Eggman was rather confused at this. Was sonic using sign language? Why wasn't he talking?

 

“You know you can just say whatever you want to say aloud furball. I don’t know sign language.” 

 

Sonic froze mid sentence, and actually looked a little hurt by the doctors mild insult. He meekly pointed at his neck and shook his head.

 

_ ‘Is he… mute?” _ Eggman thought to himself, a look of surprise plastered on his face. Well, this was an interesting discovery. Eggman scratched his chin thoughtfully, he was going to have to find a clever way to get information from sonic. He’d probably come up with an idea faster if he wasn’t so exhausted. His slouched over form rose up as an idea came to mind.

 

“Alright sonic,” He said, gaining the hedgehog’s attention. “I’m going to ask you several yes or no questions. Just nod or shake your head to answer my questions, ok?” He explained as if sonic had no idea of the concept of yes or no questions.

 

Sonic nodded his head in agreement.

 

“Ok then. First question; Do you remember what happened earlier today?”

 

Sonic looked quizzically at the doctor before shaking his head. Eggman stroked his moustache thoughtfully as he thought up another question.

 

“Do you remember why you’re here?”

 

Another head shake reply. Interesting. 

 

“Do you know who i am?”

 

Sonic squinted his eyes at eggman, like he was attempting to remember something he forgot about. But once again he shook his head no. Eggman hummed as he continued to stroke his moustache, an old habit of his that he does when he’s deep in thought. He had only one more question in mind before he decides that he’s gathered up enough information for the night.

 

“Do you know anyone by the name tails?”

 

Sonic just looked at him oddly, as if the name tails sounded strange to him. Again, all he got was another no. 

 

Eggman had to force the kind and sympathetic look on his face, as he wanted nothing more than to grin evilly right now. Sonic has no recollection of who he is, and if he can’t recall his oldest and closest friend, then it stands to reason that he won't recall  _ any  _ of his pesky friends. He still needed a bit more information, but if his guess is correct, then he could use this to his advantage.

 

“Well, that’s all i need to know for now.” Eggman admitted. He slowly rose up from his sitting position, which startled sonic slightly. Eggman then proceeded to make his way to the storage rooms door, causing the motion detector to activate and slide the door open for him. He turned back towards sonic, who was now starting to step away from his hiding spot and looking at eggman curiously. Eggman glanced outside the hallway and saw a couple motobugs pass down the hall, reminding him that security was still online. He took a moment to use his arm device to wirelessly connect to his computer and shut down the security. After a moment to confirm that security was now offline, eggman pointed a thumb out the door and said “I just deactivated security. It will be perfectly safe for you to walk outside of here. So now, let’s go get those cuts of yours patched up and get some rest for the night.” After that he stepped out of the doorway, keeping in sight of the motion detector to keep the door open for sonic. 

 

It took a moment, but eventually sonic got the courage to step out of his hiding spot and leave the storage room. He was still trying to keep his distance from eggman and kept a close eye on him. Eggman could tell that sonic didn’t trust him. Whatever the reason for the distrust was, he hoped to find out tomorrow. As they made there way through eggman's absurdly large base, he tapped on his arm device and held it close to his face to speak into it.

 

“Orbot, cubot, gather a few spare pillows and a blanket and bring them to the medical room. We have a guest who will be sleeping in there for tonight.”

 

It was silent for a moment before one of them finally replied.

 

“A guest? I didn’t know you had any friends coming over!” Cubot shouted.

 

“Or any for that matter.” Orbot added.

 

“I heart that.” Eggman  angrily growled.

 

He heard orbot stutter over the communications, probably attempting to find a way to cover up what he said to no avail.

 

“We’ll get that stuff for ya right away boss!” Cubot said. “What didya need again?”

 

Eggman tiredly sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance.

 

“Just follow orbot, he knows what to do.” He answered and proceeded to turn the communication off.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

It didn’t take them very long to get the the med room. It looked rather similar to what you’d see in any ordinary doctors office. All along the walls were counters with a few medical supplies strew about on their surfaces as well as a sink, and cabinets storing a variety of other medical products placed on the walls above them. Right in the middle of the room was one of those blanket and pillowless beds that you’d always sit on. As they walked into the room, eggman stept to the front of the bed and pulled on a small handle that revealed a small set of steps. Eggman gestured sonic to it, and continued to the cabinets to grab a few things.

 

Sonic looked around the room uncertainty, his hands constantly fidgeting anxiously. It was rather strange to see sonic acting like this, but eggman assumed that this might have just been how sonic acted as a kid. But that sounded rather unlikely to him, sonic was most likely just really scared at the moment and would be much more relaxed in the morning. Sonic, with a bit of a struggle, managed to climb atop the much to large for him bed. He watched as eggman removed the torn up sports tape from his hands and feet and toss it in the only garbage can in the room, nearly doing the same with the bandana but was met with an aggressive hiss when he tried to touch it. Skipping that, he then opened one of the many cabinets and grabbed a nicely folded washcloth and dampened it with the sink water and adding some soap on it. It only took about a minute to clean the various cuts all across sonic, and afterwards eggman grabbed some bandages to place over them. They were both rather quiet through the process, with sonic usually impatiently swinging his feet of the side of the bed, or flinching whenever eggman went near him. Eggman was actually starting to find it a little annoying, it's as if he was consumed by paranoia, much like his pesky badger friend.

 

Just as eggman finished placing the last bandage across sonics knee, he heard a robotic gasp coming from the doorway. The two of them looked towards the door and saw orbot and cubot hovering in the entrance, both holding the objects that eggman requested.

 

“IS THAT SON-” Orbot began to shout, dropping the blanket he was carrying as he pointed towards the hedgehog in question.

 

“Why yes cubot, this is our guest sonic! How rude of you to forget him.” Eggman acted offended, gaining extremely confused looks from his henchbots.

 

Before the two could ask anymore questions, eggman snatched the belongings from them and shoved them out of the doorway.

 

“Now you two wait for me in the computer room. We have some things to discuss momentarily.”

 

Eggman then strode back into the room towards his guest, the door closing as the three of them left the motion detectors range. Eggman then placed the pillows and blankets on the bed for sonic before turning back to the door.

 

“You get some sleep, i’ll be back in the morning. Do not touch anything in here, understood?”

 

Sonic looked at eggman, his expresion a mix of fear, tiredness, and confusion. Eggman could relate to the last two. Sonic slowly nodded before he began to move the more human sized pillows and blanket into place.

  
  


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Eggman once more found himself sitting before his computer. He sat hunched over the keyboard, his brow furrowed in concentration as his chin rested atop his clenched hands. His two lackeys were hovering by his side, waiting for him to give them some sort of order, or perhaps an insulting remark as those two options where his usual way of conversing with them. They didn’t dare to speak up, as not only was he deep in concentration, he was also extremely exhausted. Those two were never a good combination, and usually lead to the two of them being cruelly punished for bothering him. So they simply hovered there, patiently waiting for their creator to do anything other than strain his back by sitting in an uncomfortable position for what was now over ten minutes.

 

It only took several more minutes, but at last the doctor finally began to move. His back made an audible pop as he sat upright and began to go through the vast amount of files on his computer, ranging from robot blueprints to secret spy footage of team sonic. Dozens of folders were opened and displayed on his screen, each one containing either valuable information, or possibly a silly cat video. After completing that he looked to his arm device and held down on the smaller of the two blue buttons for a few seconds. Almost immediately, a soft click was heard and something partially ejected from the end of the device close to his wrist. He grabbed it and pulled it from the device, revealing it to be a thumb drive. He plugged the drive into his computer and proceeded to move nearly  _ all _ of his computer's files onto the drive. Orbot and cubot just watched silently, both mentally guessing what the reasons behind the doctor's actions were. Not just his current actions on his computer, but also towards sonic. Treating his wounds and calling him his guest? It was certainly strange to say the least.

 

It didn’t take long for all the files to be moved to the drive, thanks to how powerful his computer is. And now that that was done, he finally turned to his two minions to address them.

 

“You two. Connect to my computer and download all known forms of sign language into your database.” 

 

Without so much as a word, the two robots did as they were told. Their eyes dimmed briefly, and their mouthpieces lights reduced to only one light active. Slowly more of the lights flickered back on, visually showing their progress on the task they were given as a sort of progress bar. Much like the computer, it didn’t take them very long to complete their task. As soon as they were done, a slow hum was heard, signaling that they had finished the download, and now have access to all known forms of the silent language.

 

Gathering up the courage to speak, now that their master had finally spoken to them, orbot dared to ask him one simple question. “Sir… might i ask what you are planning?”

 

Eggman stopped. The rooms silence now disturbingly eerie as the robot awaited an answer to his question. Slowly, a grin crept its way onto eggman's face as he turned his chair to face the two bots. 

 

“My plan…” He began dramatically. “Is for sonic to become my protege!”

 

“WHAT?!” Both robots questioned loudly. 

 

“Keep it down you dolts! Any louder and those irritating villagers on bygone would be able to hear you.” Eggman angrily exaggerated. 

 

He crossed one leg over the other as he began to explain his newest plan to his lackeys in a matter of fact tone.

 

“I will need to question sonic more tomorrow, but i’ve formulated a hypothesis from my current collection of data. I believe that not only has my brilliant Y.A.M device accidentally caused sonic to decrease in age, as its purpose was intended, but somehow in the process he appeared to have obtained amnesia. He currently lacks any knowledge of who i am, or his pesky little friends. And after thinking it all through i’ve decided to use this to my advantage and train sonic as my protege, and over time he will help me create eggman land!” Eggman boasted, struggling not to evilly laugh at the end as he didn’t want to risk be to loud and stir sonic awake. If the hedgehog was even asleep yet.

 

Both robots pondered over eggman hypothesis and current plan of action. It sounded like a good idea on paper, but in action could prove to be very difficult. After all there’s several factors eggman appears to not be considering. Several factors that orbot was about to point out.

 

“But sir… do you have any knowledge of childcare?”

 

Eggman's grin quickly turned to a frown.

 

“A  _ mobian _ child i might add. And what if he’s pretending to not know you or his friends?” Orbot continued.

 

Eggman was now glaring at orbot, frustrated at his actually rather good points.

 

“There’s also the possibility of his memories returning and he rebels against you.”

 

“And what about his friends? Won’t they start looking for him when they get back?” Cubot questioned, briefly showing a fraction of intelligence with a surprisingly good question. This surprised both orbot and eggman, but they quickly shook it off as eggman addressed their concerns.

 

“Ok, so the plan has a few problems that need to be worked out. Some precautions need to be placed, such as hiding all my evil plans from sonic until he fully trusts me.” He then gestured to his computer. “Like i did just moments ago!”

 

Eggman paused for a moment, releasing a long and loud yawn. He tiredly glanced towards the computer's clock and realized that it was past one in the mourning. He yawned once more as he placed his hands on his desk and lifted himself from his chair.

 

“But the rest of those problems are concerns for later.” He said, and proceeded to walks towards the rooms exit. “Right now i  _ need _ to get some sleep. Today has been a long day…”

 

Eggman sluggishly made his way out of the room, leaving orbot and cubot behind to continue pondering over his new plan. And in orbots case, trying to find all possible flaws and point them out, as it is one of his purposes. This idea did have potential to work, and if it did, having sonic as an ally would prove very beneficial to the eggman empire, despite his current younger age.

 

But amnesia or no amnesia, sonic was still sonic. And unless he’s being corrupted by an evil symbiont computer chip in a mech suit, it will be very difficult to get sonic to switch to the side of evil.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I buy all my evil products from evil amazon. such as; evil ham. can't find that stuff in any goody two shoes deli!
> 
> Also, yeah this chapters a little short, but i felt that where it ended was good and if i continued from there the chapter would get to long.  
> I'll try to make future chapters a bit longer. =3

**Author's Note:**

> In case your wondering about what some of the animalistic sounds sonic makes mean, heres two links that should help you understand: 
> 
> https://hedgehoglove.weebly.com/behaviour-and-sounds.html (this one has audio example, but they're low quality.)
> 
> http://www.mihog.org/anatomy/sounds.phtml


End file.
